The invention relates to dental floss dispensers.
The advantages of flossing on a regular basis have been well documented and dental floss has been widely sold and widely used. Dental floss is available in the form of a spool of dental floss housed in a dispenser. The dispensers permit a user to dispense a desired length of floss while storing the remainder of the unused floss.
Dental floss is dispensed from some dispensers by pulling a free end of the floss. As the user pulls on the floss, the spool rotates and the floss unwinds from the spool. During this process, the strand of floss can slip out of the exit hole of the dispenser and become stuck in the housing of the dispenser (e.g., between the walls of the dispenser), and fray or snag. The force with which the floss is pulled from the dispenser can also cause the spool of floss within the housing to unwind so rapidly that the floss becomes snagged and entangled inside of the dispenser housing.